Your willingness to endure the cold and snow in this great witness for life is truly inspiring – and special thanks to Nellie Gray for her extraordinary leadership. Read more

While surveying humanitarian relief efforts in Sri Lanka, Congressman Smith met with Howell, New Jersey resident, Lance Corporal Richard Moran who was deployed to Sri Lanka to operate Marine Corps Water Purification Units capable of treating nearly any water source and turning it into clean water at the rate of thousands of gallons per day. Congressman Smith is pictured here with Lance Corporal Moran outside of Colombo, Sri Lanka. In addition to Sri Lanka, Smith toured Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and Phuket, Thailand as part of a congressional delegation preparing new legislation aimed at helping tsunami victims rebuild their lives. The legislation will provide specific protections for children who are susceptible to water-born disease and most vulnerable to sex traffickers who prey on poor, abandoned or orphaned children. Read more

During his recent trip to the tsunami-devastated region, Congressman Smith also visited areas that were destroyed by the giant waves that came ashore without warning on December 26, killing over 30,000 people in Sri Lanka alone. Smith is pictured here visiting a US-funded school, in which over 2/3 of the students perished in the disaster. One of Smith’s priorities is to back development of an early warning system and expand microloan programs, which will help poor families and municipalities rebuild their businesses and livelihoods. Read more

During Congressman Chris Smith’s recent survey of humanitarian relief efforts in South Asia, he visited a relocation center in Sri Lanka for tsunami survivors. Smith is pictured here listening to the stories of tsunami victims at the center. Many had lost multiple family members, including their children. Smith is supporting Congressional legislation which will provide additional funding for emergency food and shelter, assist with family reunification efforts, and help the recovery of lives and livelihoods. In particular, the legislation will help protect orphaned children at risk of abuse from sex traffickers by providing for the physical, social and educational needs of children and preventing sex trafficking rings from setting up operations in post-conflict and natural disaster situations. Read more

Worried that House Republican leaders are poised to oust Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) as chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, a wide array of veterans groups is warning that such a move would send the wrong signal to U.S. troops abroad. Read more

Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton) announced today that he has locked in a New Jersey delegation classified briefing with key Department of Homeland Security (DHS) experts to discuss the intelligence and data used as the basis for the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) grant allocation for Fiscal Year 2005. The briefing is currently set for January 6, 2005, in Washington, D.C. Read more

Congressman Chris Smith (R-Hamilton) announced today that $6.8 million in new federal funding he obtained in the Fiscal Year 2003 Commerce, Justice, and State Appropriations bill will be used by the Department of Justice to construct a new secure hangar at Navy Lakehurst. Read more

Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station, New Jersey – Congressman Chris Smith (R-Hamilton) attended a groundbreaking ceremony today at the Navy base to mark the beginning of a $2.25 million military construction project he obtained in the Fiscal Year 2004 defense budget. Read more

Today the Committee on International Relations is meeting to examine the appalling issue of the continued and systematic use of coercion by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the implementation of its “One-Child” policy. In particular, we will hear testimony about the deplorable case of Mao Hengfeng, a victim of a forced abortion whose ongoing attempts to receive justice have resulted in her sentencing to 18 months of hard labor, during which she has been tortured, denied vitally-needed medicine, and whose life is in danger today. Read more

Human rights experts, State Department officials and a surviving victim of China’s one-child per couple policy came to Capitol Hill today to further expose the ongoing brutality of China’s coercive population program and its disregard for fundamental human rights. Read more